Section Three – Derek Wesley Arnold
Sophie’s hand lolls on my stomach, then turns over and strokes me lightly. “It was the most amazing thing. It was a mystery it seemed no-one knew about, ’cause, I mean, if they knew about it, why weren’t they talking about it? Why had no one ever told me, you know, that I had a body and it did nice things for me.”
Before this, our first tentative month or two had been all shapeless groping and formless conversation, vague gesture becoming inarticulate word becoming new vague gesture. Finally, inexplicably, we settled into an acceptance of each other. It was an incidental yet definitive occurrence.
In that prelude, we were hard edges and nerves that might dissolve in an instant, then re-form. We talked endlessly, struggling toward a shared language. We touched with an awkward persistence, bumping each other, teeth clacking when we kissed too hard. We were like children somehow, children who had never accomplished a kiss, a hug, a declaration of intimacy, afraid to laugh at ourselves, afraid the other might take offense somehow, shrouded in a seriousness that only made everything more comical.
Then, one day, the awkwardness simply vanished, from both of us at once. I remember the moment. I picture it now standing in the middle of my office, unsure of what to do with my hands after hanging up the phone, already anxious about our upcoming reunion.
The sunlight streams through the window, throwing wide angles along the floor and up the bare white wall and perhaps it’s this band of light that reminds me, placing me again near Sophie in the booth.
I walked into the restaurant to find her waiting, a bright band from the window cutting the table in two and falling onto her quiet hands. She looked up as I came around the corner, the door hissing closed behind me. I met her eyes and we settled into each other once and for all. We smiled a different smile, one to another, than the one we might have managed in the previous weeks.
Venus and Adonis
Music by Derek Wesley Arnold – Words by W. Shakespeare
Vocals: Derek Wesley Arnold – String Quartet: Anonymous
Produced by Derek Wesley Arnold
Derek Wesley Arnold is a professional singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist currently living in the United States. He was born in Charlotte, North Carolina on February 24th, 1983. Soon after, his family moved to the Raleigh area. Derek began learning music at age 4 with the help of his father (Harvey Dalton Arnold: bassist for legendary Southern Rock band The Outlaws). Derek would play melodies and chords he heard on the radio or around the house and Harvey would explain to him how these related to each other. At the age of 10 Derek began playing drums, and by fourteen he was playing professionally in the nearby counties.
In high school Derek started the band Blue Dust Box with three of his classmates. This band charted for two weeks at #8 in the Australian Unsigned Artist Charts. Derek was the primary songwriter for the group. At age 19 he moved to Raleigh and quickly became one of the most sought-after bassists in the region, which led to multiple tours of the United States and Canada, as well as countless hours of session work. Derek was also consistently the house bassist for five separate music venues in Raleigh over a 7 year period.
While based out of Raleigh, Derek played with Ivan Hampden (Luther Vandross, Chaka Khan), John Custer (Columbia/Sony Records), Kenny Soule (Nantucket/DAG), Nick Hagelin (The Voice/Superstition TV Show, Interscope Records, Carolina Ballet), Daniel “Slick” Ballinger (B.B. King’s Oh Boy! Records), Nathan Davis (Custer Studios), world renowned blues legends John Dee Holeman (Martin Guitars/Music Maker Foundation), Skeeter Brandon, and many others.
Derek now lives in Winston Salem, NC. He earned his Bachelor of Music Degree in Composition at the conservatory University of North Carolina School of the Arts where he is now a candidate for the Master of Music Degree in Composition.
The Cloud Diary Music Project
We sent musicians a synopsis of Cloud Diary and a randomly chosen scene from among 12 scattered throughout the novel and asked them to respond to the scene, musically or aurally. The piece could be of any genre and any duration. It could be music already recorded, adapted, or written specifically for the scene. Find more information here.
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